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| I want my strength bonus! |
Here is a table I got out of the Monster Manual II. It gives 19 to 25 strengths and a comparable monster.
Str Monster
19 Hill Giant
20 Stone Giant
21 Frost Giant
22 Fire Giant
23 Cloud Giant
24 Storm Giant
25 Titan
Again, none of these strength bonuses are included into the damage. Now I can hear some readers out there saying they don't include any attribute bonuses into the stats. True and not true. Some of the armor classes are lower because of creature being quick, some critters can cast spells because they have a higher intelligence and so on. Is it quantified? No. Would I want it to be? No. I'm just saying this because I've been thinking about it. Although I wouldn't go around figuring out dexterities for creatures, I have done a lose configuration of strengths. Why? Because I'm on vacation this week. If you want to make any more sense of it beyond that then you are wasting your time. I'm doing this before I go out and by Skyrim.
Since my campaign is mainly populated by gobliniods, humanoids and the occasion horrific abomination here is my half ass list. Is this set in stone? No. Why am I asking myself all these questions and answering them? I don't know.
Str Monster
7 Kolbolds
8 Goblins
12 Orcs
16 Hobgoblins & Gnolls & Troglodytes
17 Bugbears
18/00 Minotaurs & Ogres & Owlbears
19 Trolls & Umber Hulks
20 Ettin
PDF
Down that road lies madness.
ReplyDeleteMonsters don't have strength scores because they don't need them. The do the damage that's listed.
If your fists only do one point of damage, then how do you think that zombie is hurting you?
What is it you gain by spending all that time 'figuring out the strength scores' when you could be just playing?
I'm magic, I can play and figure it out. And the reason I did it was to make the critters a bit more monstrous. And just because I wanted to. No other reason.
ReplyDeleteWhy have ettins STR 20 when they are described (afaik) as hill giants with two heads?
ReplyDeleteBecause they tend to armwrestle against each other while hill giants are gerally two lazy two work out...
;)
I like your approach. OD&D wasn't concerned with adding a lot of depth to monsters and the stats treatment reflected that. I'm all for things that make individual monsters more unique and ultimately more problematic for adventurers to deal with.
ReplyDeleteI realize it's for the wrong edition, but the 2e supplement "Dungeon Master's Option: High Level Campaigns" does this sort of thing, but for all 6 of the basic stats. Don't know if that will help you or not.
ReplyDeleteThis is the kind of stuff that made me pick up other games. ;)
ReplyDeleteBut you could drop their damage scores, give humanoids a strength stat, and then just arm them normally. Ogre with a spear does 1d6+6 for his 18/00 strength, that sort of thing.
It's a pain to do for non-humanoid monsters, but it's also harder to eyeball the comparison. People might not blink when the dragon rolls a 1 on his 1d8 claw damage but wonder how an Ogre can do 1 damage but Freddy the Dwarf (ST 17) does at least 2.
Not that it matters, but I always thought that one of the reasons ogres did 1-10 with a mace-like club instead on 1-6 like a human is that the ogre's club is really big.
ReplyDeleteDidn't the 1e monster manual also sometimes give damage bonuses if creatures like ogres and bugbears used 'variable damage' weapons?
I've occasionally thought about this too. It makes a lot of sense though, especially when doing damage by weapon type, or for establishing a baseline humanoid leaders or boss types.
ReplyDelete